"Sir Jonathan Ive has been crowned British Visionary Innovator in a competition, run by the Intellectual Property Office. Ive won by a large margin with almost fifty per cent of the vote (46.6%). In second place was Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the world wide web) with 18.8 per cent of the vote. James Goodfellow OBE (the inventor of PIN technology and the cash machine) was in third place with 15.2 per cent of the vote." Alan Turing was also nominated. If you ever needed an illustration of everything that's wrong with the technology industry today, it's this. Guy who designs the exterior of mass-market gadgets wins over guys who actually really contributed to technology. Telling.

What's more telling is that you obviously think the Helvetica type face is on equal importance with the invention of the WWW, or the mathematical bases of computing.

I don't think that actually, I think you may be responding to a point I did not make. I do think that the Helvetica typeface was a pivotal moment in the development of modern graphic design and that when the history of the culture of the 20th and 21st century is written in the 22nd century understanding why the graphic design of almost all media changed sharply after 1957 (and remained changed at least until now) and the role of a single typeface in that change will still be of serious interest.

I do think that seminal objects and designs that have reshaped mass culture have an enduring importance.

There is a really interesting and entertaining film just about the cultural impact of Helvetica - worth a look in my opinion. Once you have watched this film you will view the visual fabric of your life utterly differently